DA LAG PREßWITZ SCHRÄG DRINNE

SANDRA RÜCKER

An acoustic accompanied trip in a rowing boat in search of a sunken village in the reservoir

It almost goes without notice that the valley which is now submerged in the beautiful, fjord-like landscape of the Hohenwarte reservoir in the Thuringian Slate Mountains was once home to 245 people. From 1935 to 1945, the dam, which was considered as "important to the war", was built. »Da lag Preßwitz schräg drinne« is an auditory memorial to the largest of the settlements evacuated in the course of the dam's construction – Preßwitz. With the myth surrounding the church tower still visible at low water, the audio-walk lures its audience in rowboats to the authentic coordinates of the underwater desolation. With each stroke of the oars, forgotten things return to the sur- face of the water. The voices of the descendants of the resettled families of Preßwitz can be heard as the reunite in a sound collage to form a fictional village community. The orally transmitted stories of their parents and grandparents compete with archival texts set to music and historical facts for the submerged truth of the village.

As a fourth-generation descendant of Preßwitz, Sandra Rücker questions the significance of the re- settlement for her own family and ultimately herself. With »Da lag Preßwitz schräg drinne« she creates a critical, cautionary, and at the same time humorous conceptual work of art that sensitizes us to the trans- generational meaning of loss of homeland and creates awareness for the Hohenwarte Dam as a National Socialist legacy.

TICKETS 

Reservation at 0152 07912084 or presswitz@sandraruecker.de 
 Ticket sale at the boat rental (only cash payment possible)
Combiticket boat-audiowalk 12 € / 8 € reduced  

Combiticket Shuttle-Boat-Audiowalk 25 € / 20 € reduced